My cheap travel backpack ripped open at Bangkok airport terminal

Was walking to my gate in Bangkok last Thursday when the seam on my $40 backpack gave out. My laptop almost hit the floor but I caught it with my foot lol. Had to carry everything in my arms to the shop and grabbed a basic roller bag for 800 baht. Anyone else had their budget gear fall apart at the worst possible moment?

3 comments

3 Comments

stone.lisa1mo ago

$40 backpack is basically a trash bag with zippers... learned that one myself when my "waterproof" bag turned my clothes into a sponge during a monsoon. At least you had quick reflexes and scored a roller bag cheap, could've been way worse. My last cheap bag failure ended with me wearing a t-shirt wrapped around my laptop like a sad little diaper.

laura_schmidt821mo ago

Grabbed that roller bag like it was the last lifeboat on the Titanic, good instincts. I've been there with the "waterproof" label too, it's basically a LIE they print on there to sell you a sponge. My cheap bag from Target once exploded a bottle of shampoo all over my clothes, so I walked into a meeting smelling like a tropical fruit salad. Now I just assume any bag under $50 will betray me at the worst possible moment.

diana5121mo ago

Oh jeez, the tropical fruit salad meeting is exactly the kind of betrayal I'm talking about. Did you at least get a laugh out of your coworkers or did they just side-eye you the whole time? Because that sounds like the kind of thing that would either break the ice or get you labeled as the weird messy person in the office forever. I'm still trying to figure out if there's any way to actually test a bag's waterproof claim without just trusting it in the rain and hoping for the best. Like, do you just stand in the shower with it for a minute before you travel or what? Your Target bag trauma is real though, I feel like those cheap bags have a built-in timer that goes off exactly when you're least prepared.